1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayered, breathable—that is to say, moisture vapor permeable—textile (including woven and knitted) fabric and especially, but not exclusively, to a textile fabric for clothing purposes. In a special embodiment, the invention relates to a fabric for manufacturing articles of work clothing for protection against the effects of heat, flames, electric arc, and the like. Therefore, the invention also relates to an article of fire protection clothing with a novel, breathable, moisture-transporting fabric as an inner layer. However, the textile fabric can also be used in the leisure sector, for example, to manufacture functional undergarments.
2. Description of Related Art
The state of the art already describes “breathing” fabric constructions such as, those sold under the name GORETEX®. Breathable fabrics are essentially water impermeable on one side, while they allow water vapor to escape through the fabric on the other side. These fabrics are used for articles of clothing, especially for jackets and coats and pants. Here, the fabric is waterproof, while, at the same time, it prevents the collection of water vapor under the coat caused by perspiration. U.S. Pat. No. 3,272,685 describes a waterproof fabric that has at least two different layers.
German Patent DE 195 47 704 A1 describes a multilayered textile fabric consisting of two fabric layers with different denier values used to transport perspiration and other bodily fluids. The fabric layers have a material from the group consisting of polyester, nylon and acrylic resin. This fabric, however, is not suitable for manufacturing protective clothing.
German Patent DE 43 07 501 A1 describes a multilayered textile fabric with an inner layer of microfibers, whereby the fabric has a wicking or capillary effect and improves the water vapor transport from the inside to the outside. The described textile fabrics are used to manufacture sports clothing, leisure clothing and the like.
As a rule, protective clothing, for instance, for firefighters, is very heavy on its own. The protective outfits provide protection by being massive, but this greatly limits the wearer's ability to move and leads to severe heat stress, thus considerably impairing the wearing comfort.
Moreover, it has to be taken into consideration that fire protection clothing has to meet national standards, for example, the standards DIN EN 469 or SN 054551.
As explained above, it has been found that so far, due to the lack of perspiration transport out of the inner protective outfit, the persons in question, that is to say, firefighters, are very well protected against hazards from the outside, but the wearing comfort, in spite of the multilayered structure, is not optimal from a physiological standpoint. Moreover, a large accumulation of moisture on the skin is very dangerous in case of fire since severe burns are to be feared here as a result of the steam being generated.
Therefore, in the area of protective clothing for firefighters, there has long been a need to find materials that combine a protective function, flame retardation, as well as thermal insulation and greater wearing comfort through facilitated perspiration transport, without storing the moisture in the fiber.
Consequently, it is the objective of the invention to provide a novel multilayered, breathable fabric that can be used for manufacturing articles of clothing, especially fire protection clothing.